Saturday 9th October

My friend and colleague’s Joana, lost her father on the 30^th September. His funeral – a traditional affair – was today.

My first problem was knowing when to go – no-one seemed to know when the funeral was, so the consensus with my flatmate was that 10 or 11 would be fine. I arrive around 10.45 – after asking for directions – simply “where is the funeral house?” is sufficient. The place was full of people – old, young, locals and family members and colleagues from all over. Joana’s father lived in a traditional Ghanaian house, but was a landowner so seemed to be highly respected in his community.

I went in to “greet” Joana, which meant going through to the main family home and sitting with them – not talking much but just sitting – while there was some dancing and celebration from locals. We then went outside and I joined other colleagues under a simple marquee. And started to wait. And wait. After a good hour, I finally asked a colleague what we were actually waiting for. Then pieces of the puzzle came together. I saw some young men, wearing only shorts, running up and round the compound several times. This was because the grave was a new grave, so they have to “run with the stone” round the house three times. We saw women go off to “inspect the grave”. War dancers appeared and danced, then went off to other clusters of people to dance for them. Groups of people – relatives, in laws – came every now and then, disappearing into the compound with traditional “mats” made of reeds. Tradition is that you bring a “mat” to the funeral. The mat is used to cover the body to carry it to the grave. One end – the head end – is bigger than the other. Some tradions dictate that the mat be carried wide end first – others say it should be feet end first.

The graves are huge here – they can hold up to 100 people. Men are buried facing the west as men work in the fields in the mornings when the sun is rising – women are buried facing east as they are particularly busy at night, preparing the food. Bodies are buried sitting up, and the mat that the body is carried in is buried separately – in the wet season. In the dry season, when digging a grave is very hard, the mat is burned – its never buried with the body.

At around 3, we saw men undressing down to their shorts – a sign that the burial (what we’d been waiting for!) would be soon. These men were undertakers, and traditionally, men have to be naked when carrying the body to the grave, though now they wear underwear. It’s important that the body in the mat is carried with naked arms. Then the war dancers went up on the roof, also signalling that the body would soon be taken from its resting place in the house. Big crowds gathered at the entrance to the house, then finally (4.15!!) the body was taken from the house and taken around the house (3 times for men, 4 for women). We had a few hairy moments when we thought the undertakers were going to knock us over. Then the body was taken to the grave, as you heard women crying – the first crying I’d seen all day.

In the south of Ghana, the traditional funeral dress is dark colours, a tradition that has travelled north too now.

Old people have big funerals with war dancing, celebrating their long life. Young people have more sombre events.

Joana’s father had 5 wives, 4 of whom are still alive. Joana’s mother is the first one, and had 10 children, 8 of whom have now died – there is just Joana and her sister left. He has a total of 21 surviving children, 41 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren. He was 95.